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PARTICLES

[*]2769. Under the head of particles are included sentence adverbs (1094) and conjunctions. Many sentence adverbs remained such, some sank to mere enclitics, others became pure conjunctions, while still others fluctuated in function, being now adverbial, now conjunctional, as καίeven and and, οὐδέnot even and nor, γάρin fact and for, πρίνsooner and until or before.

[*]2770. Conjunctions are either coördinating or subordinating. The coördinating conjunctions with their several varieties are given in 2163. The subordinating conjunctions are

[*]2771. Greek has an extraordinary number of sentence adverbs (or particles in the narrow sense) having a logical or emotional (rhetorical) value. Either alone or in combination these sentence adverbs give a distinctness to the relations between ideas which is foreign to other languages, and often resist translation by separate words, which in English are frequently over emphatic and cumbersome in comparison to the light and delicate nature of the Greek originals (e.g. ἄρα, γέ, τοί). The force of such words is frequently best rendered by pause, stress, or alterations of pitch. To catch the subtle and elusive meaning of these often apparently insignificant elements of speech challenges the utmost vigilance and skill of the student.

[*]2772. The particles show different degrees of independence as regards their position. Many are completely independent and may occupy any place in the sentence; some may occur only at the beginning (prepositive particles, as ἀτάρ); others find their place only after one or more words at the beginning (postpositive particles, as γάρ, δέ); and some are attached closely to a preceding word o<*> even form compounds with that word wherever it may occur (γέ, τέ).

[*]2774. As regards their meaning, particles may be arranged in classes, e.g adversative, affirmative, asseverative, concessive, confirmative, conjunctive, inferential, intensive, interrogative, limitative, negative, etc. These classes canno<*> always be sharply distinguished: some particles fall under two or more classes Many particles, which serve to set forth the logical relation between clauses, ha<*> originally only an intensive or confirmatory force that was confined to their ow<*> clause. The following sections deal only with the commoner uses of the most noteworthy particles.

[*]2775.ἀλλά, a strongly adversative conjunction (stronger than δέ) connects sentences and clauses, and corresponds pretty closely to but; at times ἀλλά need not or cannot be translated (2781 b). In form (but with changed accent) ἀλλά was originally the same wor<*> as the accusative neuter plural ἄλλαother things used adverbially = on the other hand. ἀλλά marks opposition, contrast, protest, dif<*> ference, objection, or limitation; and is thus used both where one notion entirely excludes another and where two notions are no<*> mutually exclusive. ἀλλά is often freely repeated in successive clauses.

[*]2779. The origin of ἀλλ᾽ἤ is disputed, some scholars regarding ἀλλ᾽ as ἀλλά (originally ἄλλα, 2775), while others derive ἀλλ᾽ directly from ἄλλο, which is thought to have lost its force and consequently its accent. In some passages the Mss. do not distinguish between ἀλλ᾽ and ἄλλ᾽; and ἀλλ᾽ἤ and ἄλλοἤ differ only slightly in meaning. In some of the above cases ἀλλ᾽ has an adjectival force, in some it hovers between an adjective and a conjunction, and in others it clearly has become a conjunction.